GAMERA VS. JIGER (1970)
Time for a final look at the Showa era Gamera films, and the last double feature before heading to the later series. At least in the main run before the reboot; I don't think the clips show from 1980 counts. So let's check off all the usual ingredients. Another submarine used by two children? Yes. Another flying saucer, and another undersea monster? Correct. However, at least when it comes to Gamera vs. Jiger someone said 'hey what if we make a monster movie?' So there are actual kaiju attacks and the pacing is almost tolerable. Let's see how the rest of the film stacks up.
Things start off badly with an intro credits sequence comprised of stock footage. Fortunately this is the only use of clips from other movies in this particular one. Other red flags early on include lots of talk about Osaka Expo '70 along with plenty of shots of the location. As ever the father of a young boy Hiroshi (Tsutomu Takakuwa) is involved; this time building a miniature submarine for the Expo so there's a lot of talk about the event. Does this location provide anything beyond a cheap marketing stunt? Not really. Luckily all this stuff doesn't outstay its welcome.
Meanwhile a team of researchers are on Easter, no sorry Wester, Island where a strange statue is being excavated. This item 'The Devil's Whistle' has a silly name and a silly purpose. But the father of Hiroshi's friend Tommy (Kelly Varis) has no time for local superstition; the relic must be studied and it must be brought to the Expo... for some reason. What information is needed that they can't find without moving it? In this world would the Easter Island heads be dug up? Why is a diplomat for the area so angry without saying anything about the monster?
But there's no time to worry about all that before Giant Demon Beast Jiger shows up. At first the villain of the story just seems like a dumb dinosaur without many interesting features. It's just a brown reptile with horns. Luckily there are no annoying human bad guys for once and the film actually lets the monster go on a city wide rampage. Generally he's a real brute and there are several moments where real collateral damage is seen. Two ships are destroyed and there's even a reference to Godzilla 1954 as a news crew finds themselves in Jiger's path.
It's not a high budget affair as you'd imagine (military forces are shown only with the tiniest models) but regular monster brawls and action keep things moving. Both creatures have some down-time (via injury, coma or just a straightforward nap) but their encounters are varied. Jiger has some pretty strange abilities which keeps things interesting, from dart shooting tusks to jet thrusters and a rather nasty sting in the tail. Which is to say this is a weird movie, even by the established standards. However, a lot of the usual elements that didn't work before are still present.
The main one is of course the two child actors who know everything and can do anything. There's some charm to be found in the bizarre submarine sequence (where Gamera's inside organs are visited) in a pseudo Fantastic Voyage sort of way. But generally their presence undermines any city scale destruction scenes. In an ideal world the story would have focused on the greed of explorers stealing from an uncharted island, and the strange curse that befalls several workers. But these flashes of intrigue, like the darker moments of violence, are brief.
Like the similar skeletal remains in Godzilla vs. Hedorah these scenes are at odds with the broader tone of the story. However, it wouldn't be until the next film in the series where the overt environmentalist messaging would be copied. With a tighter script that focused on the strange connection between Jiger and the statue, or even the archaeology and science, things might be more engaging. But at this stage in the franchise it's just fun to see some proper monster action; suffering through all the comic book shenanigans is part of the package and can't be avoided.
3/5
BONUS REVIEW
GAMERA VS. ZIGRA (1970)
Anyway, here's the final 'proper' feature of the original run. Here the opening sequence has a different kind of red flag; the usual Daiei company title card is preceded by the logo for Dainichi Film. Daiei went bankrupt just before this one was finished, which might explain why it's such a low effort affair even by the usual standards. It has some promise in the form of a moonbase scene at the start, since a leap into real sci-fi might actually work. However, once the spaceship (looking oddly like a bowl of Skittles) destroys what is presumably just Japan's lunar lab things get back to basics.
The real story starts with a visit to Kamogawa Sea World in yet another marketing stunt. This one is worse than the last and unfortunately leads into various clips of orcas and seals performing for a crowd. The edutainment filler continues as alien stooge Woman X (Eiko Yanami) talks about how her master, Zigra, needs an unpolluted ocean from which to rule the planet. All while wearing a recycled costume from Gamera vs. Guiron. Soon the two child leads (this time a girl and boy, the only big change) are chased around by her in what is a long and embarrassing scene, even for this series.
Meanwhile instead of getting to some monster attacks various annoying side characters from the park and the local area arrive to over-act and provide no useful purpose, beyond getting the film to reach eighty minutes. The actual Gamera stuff comes half way through but is weirdly tedious and lacks what made the prior film fun. Previously he was poisoned and impaled by the villain. This time he... falls over and lands on his head. Meanwhile Zigra and Woman X are too incompetent to be enjoyable. They have the power of mind control, perhaps the most useful world domination tool, but act like morons.
It's the same for the heroes; the alien weaknesses to things like sonar or light come from nowhere and have no internal logic behind them. Sometimes Zigra is on land in the day, sometimes he has legs. Sometimes he creates earthquakes, but not always. Sometimes Gamera forgets to use the classic fire breath. Eventually yet another submarine subplot arrives but if the film-makers don't care why should the audience? It's been silly nonsense for a while, but there are lower limits and maybe this is it (again not counting what arrived in 1980). But when it's easier to relate to the snoozing monsters than the humans maybe it's time to quit.
1/5
